Arthur Waligora Illustration, Literature, Painting, Poetry, Visual Arts

Hi there!

  I moved to the Bay area from LA working as a Digital Art Director for a major enthusiast publishing company. Since relocating I have been eager to start working with paint and other mediums to express myself. Very grateful to have been invited by Petaluma Arts Center to speak at one of their Idea Lounge events.  

David Ward Music Orange County transplant to Sonoma County in 2012, studying Geography / Art History with a Museum Management minor at Sonoma State University. Primarily an after-hours musician and home recorder, I identify as a songwriter and love to play live. Now that I've played guitar for over ten years, my music has become more guitar-drive than anything else but keeping up with bass guitar, viola, piano, and trying my luck with live drums and drum production. For visual arts, I only dabble in my limited creations: I love to shoot amateur 35mm film but when it comes to painting and drawing I mostly do charcoal and conte work or just graphite drawings. Only in the past year have I begun to work a few times with acrylic paints, india ink, and paper collage as well as paper sculpture. Always looking for the next adventure!

Carlea Warren-Rossi Illustration, Mixed, Other, Painting, Visual Arts Carlea developed an interest in art from an early age. As her family would say, she was born with a pencil in her hand. Due to her shy nature as a child, she had difficulty communicating with others solely through words, so art became her form of communication with the outside world. It existed as a way to openly express her feelings, emotions and beliefs, since images could cross over so many linguistic and cultural barriers. Born and raised in California, Carlea went on to receive her B.A. in art studio from the University of California, Davis. Currently, her focus is combining art with social justice and community building.

Daniel Wasik Artisan, Design, Recovery Fund Grantee, Visual Arts Daniel Wasik - Artist, Designer, Knitter

Carole Watanabe Mixed, Painting, Sculpture, Visual Arts Watanabe's past (leading to this romantic present), includes establishing the first nationally recognized Gallery for the Fiber Arts in San Francisco; founding the Apprentice Alliance (a non-profit organization dedicated to placing apprentices with masters in all fields of endeavor); and a life-long commitment to creating supportive communities that nourish the wild art spirit in all of us. Her tapestries, sculptural handmade paper works and paintings hang in private collections, hotels, banks, hospitals and corporate offices across the country. Currently, she is living and teaching the concept of "life as an art form" during the winters at her art school in Sebastopol, CA known as Art Heaven, and summers in the French fauvist village of Collioure where she paints and sells her work in her own gallery L'Art Vivant. Carole resides in Sebastopol, California on Ragle Road at Chez la Vie, a retirement compound created with her husband, Jazz Musician, Don Watanabe.

Barbie Watts Artisan, Creative Sonoma Grantee, Functional Art, Illustration, Mixed, Multi-Media, Other, Other, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, Teacher/Instructor, Teaching Artist for Youth, Visual Arts Living through some iconoclastic times, I feel like the truth seeker and the magician, asking viewers to see what I see in my drawings, paintings, sculpture, video’s and writing about it all.  I grew up in a family of exceptional people.   Trained in painting and ballet from a young age, I would move on to different mediums and styles of art for the the rest of my life. I would pour myself into every style, medium and philosophy I could afford. Having to find alternative sources for the necessities of, say, painting, I scoured alleys and dumpsters at businesses, looking for and finding paper for drawing or mat board, wood for stretching canvas, sometimes the canvas.  I also found canvas and more, not at the art store, but discount fabric stores or hardware store.  I still reuse today, making paper mache containers, boxes and pencil cups, using plastic clamshells, soup cans, as molds.  Old aluminum foil makes great armatures for my smaller pieces, the mermaid candlestick holders or boxes and such. Water is my current interest and being able to make air to water collectors in a way it would catch the public s attention. I think there power in having some control over those things that are normally out of our control, like the drought in California.  Water from Air collectors on’t depend on anyone or any company, to work. They can be made from the simplest materials. WHY aren’t there more?

Andrea Wedell Painting, Visual Arts Andrea Wedell is the daughter and grand-daughter of artists and architects. Growing up, she was surrounded by strong willed artists, and grew to hold beauty as the guiding force in her own life. When her grandfather, Alexander Stoller sold half of his land in the Berkshire mountains to cast one of his largest marble sculptures in bronze, it was acquired by the American Embassy in Paris. Andrea attended the opening ceremony, and shortly after, captivated by the magnitude of culture available in Europe, uprooted from her native California and moved to Paris. The France adventure spanned 27 years before she moved back to her much-loved California in 2013. Andrea has a bachelor of Arts from UCLA, and while in Paris, she studied under acclaimed Beaux Art teachers Michele Massiou and Jacqueline Guillermain for over 10 years. She began exhibiting regularly at the Grand Marche d’Art Contemporain in Paris, before becoming a permanent artist with Galerie BE Espace also in Paris for 10 years. Her work has been published by Les Editions Arcadia in France. In California, she was a featured artist at Toadfish Contemporary Gallery in Sausalito and is featured currently at Desta Gallery in San Anselmo. She has been making art for two decades, and teaching for one. Her second profession as a certified life coach further enhances her art education practice. andreawedell.com

Asherah Weiss Arts Administration, Creative Sonoma Grantee, Folk Art, Illustration, Improvisation, Mixed, Multi-Media, Muralist, Other, Other, Other, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Puppetry, Sculpture, Teacher/Instructor, Teaching Artist for Adults, Teaching Artist for Youth, Theatre, Visual Arts Asherah Weiss is an educator, community artist, and organizer.  Since graduating from California College of the Arts in 2011, she has helped start many projects that bring people together around arts and placemaking, in Sonoma County and the Bay Area, including the PLACE for Sustainable Living in Oakland, and womb space collaborative arts in Santa Rosa.  Her belief in the democracy of the arts has inspired her to bring creativity to people of all ages and abilities, including as a credentialed art teacher at Healdsburg Junior High through the first school years of the pandemic.  In 2022, she co-created the globally known project Peptoc, a hotline and series of posters with uplifting messages from kids (call 707-8PEPTOC), and is now continuing the project with Jessica Martin in the form of a book full of young people’s wisdom and humor from around the world.  Her excitement lies in what creativity can do for the world— making things more collaborative, sustainable, beautiful and meaningful.   Current Projects include:

• Co-creator of the Peptoc Project, currently taking submissions for a book of uplifting messages from young people around the world.  See peptoc.net
• Programs Director at Artstart
• Coordinator of Earth Protector Parade at the 1st Climate Fest on April 22nd, 2022 in the Healdsburg Plaza
• Artist in Residence at West Side Elementary School

L. Scott Weiss Acting, Recovery Fund Grantee, Theatre Actor / Voice Actor / Voice-over

Amy A. Whitcomb Artisan, Fiction, Functional Art, Holidays Shop Local, Literature, Non-Fiction, Other, Other, Poetry I create fine art, functional art, and opportunities for myself and others to observe, reflect, discover, and build community through the written word. Please consider supporting my paper and book arts by purchasing blank journals for yourself and your loved ones. Each journal is unique -- made from repurposed, locally sourced materials -- to encourage reflection and creative expression. Please visit www.amyawhitcomb.com/artist to learn more about me.

Becky White Audio, Composition, Film, Instrumental, Media, Music, Photography, Video, Visual Arts, Vocal Becky White  (she/her) is a musician (vocalist, guitar & synth), music producer and videographer/photographer artist based in Petaluma, CA.  She has been a lifelong activist for social and environmental justice, and runs her production company MakeARTNow.org which is focused on creating media for a changing world.   Becky White has published four original CDs and has been performing her whole life. A dedicated student of music from diverse locations such as Berklee College Of Music, The Ali Akbar Khan College, and gamelan masters in the jungles of Bali Indonesia.  She also studied conservation biology and wildlife ecology, which has been a major influence In her music and support of social and environmental justice. Becky continues to learn and experiment with singing, field recordings, found and created instruments, vintage guitars, pianos & synths, computers, MIDI, and the study of indian classical music.  Along with various client projects, Becky records and produces music and videos for her band FIREKEEPER,  for her label and production company MakeARTNow.org. 

Lindsay Whiting Literature I’m a Book Coach who helps self-publishers plan, prepare, publish, and promote nonfiction books. My decades-long career in print and publishing gives me a complete understanding of how to build a high-quality book from manuscript development to design to print to marketing — and the practical, hands-on experience to educate, guide, and coach others who are new to it. I want my clients to feel that they have someone who understands what they are going through, someone to give them sound advice, and someone to support them when they need it most. You are not alone…

Cynthia Whitman Acting, Audio, Film, Film Office, Folk Art, Improvisation, Literature, Media, Music, Other, Puppetry, Talent, Theatre, Video, Vocal I’m a professional, union voice actor based in Sonoma, with 14 years of professional stage & screen experience. I am available for voiceover work in: - Commercials - Videos - Audio Books - Animation - Podcasts - Corporate Narration - E-learning - Apps - Video Games - Audio tours - Singing - Etc. I have a professional home recording studio with… - Microphone - Røde NT1 - Interface - Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 - DAW - TwistedWave - Computer - MacBook Pro - Headphones - Sony MDR-7506 Or, I am happy to record at any Bay Area recording studio of your choice. I am also a professional high soprano singer, vocal range G3-F6, with experience in musical theatre, light opera, & choral singing. And I am available to work as an on-camera actor for commercials, lifestyle-modeling, or scripted narrative films. I am a member of both acting unions, SAG-AFTRA and AEA.

Niki Wildflower Artisan, Creative Sonoma Grantee, Design, Fashion Design, Fiber Art, Graphic Design, Illustration, Mixed, Other, Painting, Sculpture, Teacher/Instructor, Teaching Artist for Youth, Visual Arts Niki Wildflower is a nomadic Artist who currently resides in Petaluma California. She has been influenced by muralists, agitprop art, graffiti and 90’s riot grrrl bands with a focus on women’s rights. Motivated by body-positive activism and our culture’s idea of beauty standards, she chooses to depict female figures as monumental and sacred because of society's poor representation of women. She hopes to capture the strength of softness and the beauty of large women who are unapologetically themselves. As a graduate of Central Connecticut State University her background has been a mixture of easel paintings, life drawings, and murals that specifically concentrate on figurative work. Her figures show closed female forms juxtaposed open and confident power stances, representative of the inner battle women face each day as well as the destruction of female egos. Confident figures challenge today’s beauty norms by portraying large dominant women gazing back at the viewer - a concept of looking and being looked at. Her murals and paintings are the culmination of her art education and experience and are the framework of Niki Wildflower’s dexterity. Her subjects include 2nd and 3rd wave feminist icons, models from multiple social media platforms, and people from everyday life. The struggle to incorporate text and street art aesthetics is unified by her experimentation with spray paint and stickered lettering. Working on a large scale provides a mural-like ambiance that exempli

Carolyn Wilson Mixed, Visual Arts Carolyn Wilson is a British mixed media artist living in Sebastopol. A lover of texture, she specializes in creating collage that has a rich tactile surface, with partially hidden layers that create a sense of mystery and history. In her art studio you will find her surrounded by a mountain of hand-colored papers, with glue and brush in hand. She creates using water media such as watercolor and acrylic ink, rice papers and found elements. “Communicating more than what is often visible on the surface, my collages usually begin life in an abstract way then grow into something more recognizable. Using ephemera, such as maps, printed words, letters and postage stamps that I have collected on my travels, my art is literally embedded with fragments of my life story. You often need to step up and take a close look to discover these hidden surprises.”” – says Carolyn. Carolyn has participated in Sonoma County Art Trails Open Studios since 2014, and her work is available year-round at Upstairs Art Gallery in Healdsburg. Paintings by Carolyn have been published in 2 books: The Encyclopedia of Watercolour Techniques by Hazel Harrison (UK, 2018) and The New Encyclopedia of Watercolor Techniques by Hazel Harrison (USA, 2010).

Kari Wishingrad Acting, Artisan, Fiber Art, Film, Film Office, Improvisation, Media, Talent, Theatre Growing up in New York City, Kari began her performing career at an early age influenced by attending a performing arts grammar school near Lincoln Center as well as by Joseph Kipness, a close family friend who was a Broadway Producer. She was four years old when she saw her first Broadway show “I Had a Ball” starring Buddy Hackett. When Karen Morrow took the stage and sang, Kari knew then and there that she wanted to perform. Kari has acted in plays, mostly musicals, throughout grammar school, high school and college at SUNY New Paltz. During her sophomore year abroad she joined an English language theater group in Besançon, France. Kari continued performing in theater when she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area landing a role in “Tokens: A Play on the Plague”. Produced by Whoopi Goldberg, written by David Schein, and directed by Robert Ernst. “Tokens” ran for 32 extended performances at Theatre Artaud and won eleven Bay Area theater awards. In 2002 Kari turned her focus to film, voice over, industrials, television, print, regional and national commercials. She has acted in dozens of features and short independent films, many of which have been in the festival circuit and may be seen on DVD via Netflix and Amazon.com. Kari is currently producing a film based on the “SHE” that celebrates the women of the Beat generation. She continues expanding her talents while enjoying living in Northern California’s wine country.    

Richard Wizardsky Audio, Design, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Media, Mixed, Painting, Photography, Visual Arts

I have been illustrating and painting all my life and have been painting on glass for about 20 years.

I graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania USA. I graduated with a triple majors in Graphic design, Illustration, and 3 dimensional design. With that education I embarked on a carrier as a graphic designer for Mellon Bank, Bd&E, A.Magazine, In Pittsburgh newsweekly, and produced and Edited Further Magazine,and then short stint into movie graphics for Disney and Lions GateFilms. I have been showing in galleries since 1989 from One Taste Gallery in San Francisco, a group show at the Buddha"s Palm Gallery, Coffee Bizarre, Frame of Mind Gallery, Main Street Coffee,Coffee Bazaar and Slice of Life, Peace in Medicine Gallery, The Pine Cone, Aubergine Emporium, Tiny Town, Hardcore, Guyaki to name a few in West County.. Then in Pittsburgh At Lascquax Gallery, The Beehive, City Books the Zenith Gallery, the Pittsburgh regional history museum as well as the Bloomfield Gallery, my works also adorn Theresa Heinze's foundation for fine arts, More recently showing at Tiny Town, hardcore, Guyaki,Fat heads Gallery , Polk street Gallery, Aubergine after Dark Emporium, Live painting at Festivals and local concert venues such as hop Monk and Lupin Lodge. I focus my artistic sights on the Images and objects of nature, using vivid color to convey their most exuberant form. Through my art I hope to bring people closer to the spiritual relm of the natural world they are immersed in.

Artist Highlights

• ArtWanted.com Gallery:    Fine Art
• Represented By:    FurtherImages
• Past Clients:    Mellon Bank, Disney, Inn Pittsburgh Magazine, Further Images and words, Film Joey coyle, Heinz Foundation, DDf&m etc

Elizabeth Wolfe Music, Vocal Velvet Chamber is a rock n roll group, with shades of our various individual influences. Members have been in projects ranging from punk  rock to reggae, classical to barbershop, funk to prog rock, power metal to pop! Velvet Chamber's sound is provocative & hard driving in nature. This current rock project is laced with a blues touch, a little punk & maybe some old school metal too. There is a saucy, sexy, hard driving approach to the song writing. It's "music that bleeds as it heals" because of it's lyrical content. Darker subject matter is often brushed aside or glorified, but there’s a need to have light shed on it, let’s talk about it so that a healing can occur or an acceptance of our differences can happen.

Charlotte Wood Recovery Fund Grantee, Visual Arts

Dana Woodman Artisan, Design, Functional Art, Furniture, Graphic Design, Other, Other, Sculpture, Visual Arts, Woodworking Dana founded Chimera Art Space in early 2012 as a place to bring talented, creative and innovative people in the North Bay together. He has worked as a software consultant and serial entrepreneur for nearly a decade working with companies including Google and Comcast and founding multiple companies. Dana builds interactive art sculptures, furniture, and other artwork using woodworking, metalworking, 3D printing, laser cutting, electrics and CNC machining. He studied fine art at the University of the Pacific and loves traveling, the outdoors and kittens 😸.

Nancy Woods Painting, Visual Arts I live in Sonoma County and I am a northern California native. I received my BFA from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Upon graduation, I began working in the wine industry, as being an artist is not as profitable as I would like. I put my art on the back burner for many years. While working at a winery that had a rotating art show, I would look at these beautiful pieces wishing I could create them. One day an artist hung her work and I was inspired. I pulled out my acrylic paints that were 20 years old and painted a picture of a dog named Paul. When I showed Samantha my painting she encouraged me to continue. I also posted future paintings on Facebook and my community also encouraged me to continue painting. When I tried oils, my paintings improved 100%. This is what I use today. I have been fortunate to sell most of my pieces in the United States, Canada, Amsterdam and Ireland. I am inspired by color. Bright colors just make me happy!

Rachel Wynne Acting, Ballet, Choreography, Dance, Improvisation, Modern, Other, Other, Performance Art, Professional Performance, Teacher/Instructor, Theatre Born in Ireland, Rachel Wynne moved to New York City in 2004 to continue her dance studies at Dance Space Center. In 2016 she moved to Sonoma County and has choreographed, taught and performed locally since. Choreographing professionally from the age of 18, she has received grants, commissions and awards from the Arts Council of Ireland, Irish National Dance Awards and LD Dance Trust. In 2005 she founded expandance, a cross-Atlantic dance theater company with members based in New York City and in Ireland. expandance has produced professional performances in both countries, some simultaneously, with audiences in two cities able to connect during performances. Rachel is a performer, but her big love is choreography, and bringing heart-felt, intelligent, emotionally engaging dance to new audiences. With her work, she aims to demystify contemporary dance, making it more accessible and fun for all. She also teaches modern, contemporary, ballet, choreography skills, performance etiquette, and the expandance technique to all ages. If you're a fabulous, open-hearted, creative dancer in Sonoma County who wants to create stuff, she definitely wants to meet and work with you. Rachel holds a Joint BA Hons in Contemporary Dance & Theatre from De Montfort University (U.K.) and further training from Dance Space Center (NYC) and Tanz Atelier Wien (Austria) as well as others. She has trained, taught, and performed in Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Austria, India, Costa Rica, and both US coasts.